Fortune Favors The Bold

Daily News wastes 250 words bashing the MTA for no reason

ohhleary:

Some rubber-necked MTA contractor installed a subway countdown sign parallel — instead of perpendicular — to the downtown platform at the Bleecker St. station so that waiting straphangers must stretch backward to see when the 6 train will arrive.

Oh, those morons! Just another ridiculous instance of idiot contractors working on MTA projects.

The article goes on for five paragraphs to quote passengers’ frustrations with the clock, one of whom brainlessly blames MTA board members, who have no control over minute decisions like this.

Then, out of nowhere, the authors of the article give an explanation that makes this completely a non-story:

[An MTA spokeswoman] also said the location of the sign was intended to be temporary to allow the clock to be tested during other construction in the station. That project is done, so the clock will soon be set in the proper position, she said.

So, in other words, there was a reason for the placement of this sign this all along. It wasn’t an idiot contractor, it was another construction project in the station… which anyone who had actually used the station anytime in the past three years would have noticed, since there was a giant blue construction wall directly opposite this sign that prevented it from hanging over the platform.

But never mind, let’s spend 250 words bashing the MTA for no reason. No wonder the public has no confidence in that agency - the press relentlessly nit-picks, even when there’s a perfectly good explanation.